Italy and Budapest: Long overdue blogs

November 26, 2012

Yes, these blogs were written a significant amount of time ago. I have no real excuses for not posting them until now, except for the fact that school got a lot harder. I am now enrolled in my first law class and two challenging psychology classes. Altogeather I am speding a lot more time with my face in a book, and any time I am not, I am out exploring Hollands flat lands.

So with out further a due, please enjoy the rest of my spring breaks stories.

PIza, Italy.

“While everyone else is trying to hold it up, your putting it down,” said Greg Demaio to me as I stood posing for a picture, shaking my fist at the leaning tower of Pisa! “But its definitely thinking outside the box.” Then of course I took some regular pictures of me trying too hold it up too. Just one of those things you do when you find yourself in Pisa, Italy.

Pisa was Day 4 and 5 of the world tour. We arrived in late Teusday night and crash as soon as we arrived in our hostal. The next morning we wore up early and rented bikes again. According to google maps photos, the distance between Pisa and its Marina, looks very close. But contrary to looks, is the effort needed to make it there and back. 25 Kilometers was the days total. But the beach was worth it.

Barcelona I believe had the upper sand in weather and atmosphere. Whereas Pisa could be appreciated for its quiet, peaceful touch. The waves were a symphony of symbols that crashed sweetly on the soft ground. Children laughed with their parents playing in the shallow deeps of the worlds pool. All while tiny fish wreaked havok, attacking the inside of our ankles. Yet they remained too quick to be caught by the swift hands reaching for them.

The next day the real adventure came. After a well deserved sleep in, Greg and I traveled outside of Pisa. Taking the train to the tallest parts of Tuscony. Famous for their beautiful mountin range and we decided to see just how high we could hike up.

Several steep miles later, we found ourself in a new unknown city known as none other than Capriglia. It was a town a top a BIG hill. And just off its main street lead to a small park, with a trail leading out into unknown mountin mysteries. Following its tail deep into the trail, I found my self cursing my camera for not being able to properly do justice to views its natural balcony over looked. With the best of the “worst” photos below.

Our third day stay was spent mostly relaxing by the tower, watching the tourists do the same thing over and over. Everyonce in a while one might catch some one trying to look like their kicking it down too! But other wise it was a chill time spent recuperating from the extreme physical tests we put on out bodies the two days prior.

At this point we were suting up for what would be a wild time in Budapest.

Budapest, Hungry.

What can I say about Budapest, Hungry? Well for starters, the exchange rate is awesome! Its not that everything is “free” but is the fact that their money is regurlarly echanged by the thousands. So when you drop 2 G’s on dinner at Burger Kings. You feel something like a king yourself.

The city was easy to navigate, and has pleanty to offer. First we made our way across the stand-out stylized bridge, to a hill just off the outter limit south-side of the city, that had large beautiful statues one could admire up close, which overlooked the city from a very ascetically pleasing point of view. From there we made out way to the castel.

This was my first castel experience, and it was turned into a musem. I am not sure if it was students day, or our irresistible charm, but we got in for free. It was alright for a musem experience, nothing too special. Had your paintings and artifacts, but the truth is, the real fun was in visiting the House of Terror. The old gothic Parliament building was filled to the max for tour that day, we decided to drop a few “thow” on the House of Terror.

When you first get close to the builing there is a line of young faces staring at you. These were only a few of the victims of Nazi and solviet occupations of Hungry durring the days of world war two. They would take advantage of a secret police, that would arrest people on faluse accusations and use tourture methods too make new people falsely accuse others. There were said to have affected one in every three families durring that time. The tour started on the third floor with old Nazi invasion video with appropriate mood setting music, and ended in the basement of the actual location where captives were held and tortured One room stuck out to me. It was deep enough for one body. Wide enough for maybe two. But the conditions to look and be a part of were absolutely sicking.

The final room had the faces of the men in power at the time. Details of which men were caught and when others died. It was a very a justifying end, one that left you with a sense of justice. Yes, human capability is grand in all aspect, but some more disturbing than others.

That night we went out to a bar in the ruins, as the Hungarians would say. Or a Ruin bar. They are unrenovated ruins from the world war 2 days, and is most situations just a re-decorated broken down artifacts of the little that stood standing. Who wouldn’t want to drink there? It was pretty cool though, and got better when we found some highly competitive foosball players. They were the dirtiest (hip-lingo for “skilled”) I have ever seen.

The second night I met up with some friends also attending the webster campus in leiden because they also chose to go to Hungry during the break too. So after getting lost in the rain, we dry off in their hostel before heading out. This was a very fun night, filled with adventure (losing the pub crawl group), mayhem, (re-finding the pub crawl) and great stories, (like the drinks they didn’t charge us for at the final bar).

Before we left, we wanted one good meal. Because the exchange rate was so impressive, Greg and I went to a small restaurant down a main street in Budapest and pigged out. The bill, which was less than 20 euros, was around 4500 Huf! With a 500 Huf left too. Which in total is a great deal for a big piece of veal and a large personal pizza. We also did a little shopping at H and M before out plane home that day.

Today I am hard at work in my books. I had a simple semester last term, only taking two classes left me with a lot of free time. But now I am in three challenging classes, one of them being my first law class. Yeah, it’s a lot of fun but the text book is a piece of work to work though. So my face is in the books until this weekend approaching when I will be traveling to Rome, with my close friend here, Tegan. More to come about that after it happens. However, do keep an eye out for my next post before then, I will be commenting on my friends birthday weekend, and my experience at the Van Gogh museum. Both were great times.

Meyer. Out.

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Hey Meyer, really enjoy reading your blog, Would you be interested in posting some of your work on StudentsGoneGlobal.com? We would love to have your excellent posts on there for other students who will be traveling abroad in the future!